Aircraft routinely encounter weather related threats such as clear air turbulence (CAT). These threats may not be identifiable from ground stations, either because the threats are invisible to ground based instruments or because there are no ground based instruments within range of the threats or the aircraft (over an ocean for example).
Aircraft travel would be generally safer if the pilot knew of weather related threats in advance. The pilot could take measures to mediate the threat or even avoid the threat entirely. However, the only method currently available for warning pilots of weather related threats in the vicinity of the aircraft involves other pilots in other aircraft manually reporting weather related threats to a ground station, and that ground station subsequently disseminating that information to other pilots. This system is prone to delay, especially where a pilot encounters a weather related threat over an ocean, and reflects only such information as may be reported.
Information regarding weather related threats would be more useful if pilots in the vicinity could receive weather related information from other pilots in the vicinity in real-time or nearly real-time. Real-time sharing of information is not practical with current technology. Pilots would be required to continuously transmit weather related information while at the same time continuously listen for weather related information from an unknown multitude of potential sources.
Consequently, it would be advantageous if an apparatus existed that is suitable for automatically sharing weather related information among aircraft in a given locality.